Last week, I talked about one of the most common questions that I get, “Should we renovate before selling?”
The short answer was “No! Don’t renovate!”
(Read last week’s blog “Should You Renovate?”)
Although most renovations don’t make any financial sense from a “return on investment” perspective, here are 4 reasons why you should renovate:
1. Your Family Can Enjoy the Renovations
Whenever I meet sellers who recently “renovated to sell”, I always hear the same regret, “we should have done this years ago so that our family could enjoy it!” If there are things in the house you would love to renovate, why not do it now rather than later?
2. You Need to Sell Quickly
With each upgrade or renovation you put in the house, you improve the chances of selling your home faster. Whether it’s installing new flooring or adding pot-lights, you won’t get 100% of your investment back, but maybe the confidence to sell quickly is more important to you.
Also in a super-Seller’s market, selling “quickly” isn’t really the issue since you’re going to get offers. In that case, you want to optimize for the right renovations to get the highest sales-price.
3. You Don’t Pay 100% Retail
When I say “100% retail”, I mean, a renovation typically costs you the full retail costs of design, materials and labour. However, suppose you are excellent at interior design, you know an inexpensive vendor for raw materials and you can do the work yourself (or find someone cheap). Now you aren’t paying “100% Retail”, so you will actually make money when you renovate!
4. You Are Fixing Deficient Issues
Lastly, you should always correct anything that is “deficient”.
Typically, buyers follow the same process to buy a house:
- They search for homes in a price range
- They short-list them based on photos
- They visit them on weeknights or on the weekend
It’s rare when buyers feel a house is perfect and put in an offer right away. Oftentimes, the buyers aren’t quite sure about the home and look for other factors.
The main sub-conscious factors they are looking for are “strikes”. When a house gets enough “strikes” such as a bad light-switch or a broken window, they can safely disregard the property and move on to the next one.
Therefore, deficient items should be repaired or upgraded. It will dissuade buyers from putting in offers or offfering a high price.
Curious about what renovations would get the most money for your home?
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